Toyota uses the first supplied 1.6-litre BMW diesel engine in Verso
If you recall, Toyota had tied-up with BMW for engines and fuel-cell technology. The first phase seems to be completed as the new Toyota Verso will have the BMW powered diesel engine. The Verso 1.6 D-4D compact MPV will be the first Toyota to be equipped with an engine supplied by the BMW Group under a contract agreed by the manufacturers two years ago.
Didier Leroy, Senior Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation, and President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe (TME), said: “At Toyota, we believe that tackling environmental challenges facing our industry will require more than one approach. Hybrid is at the core of our strategy towards sustainable mobility, but we also see a role for clean diesel in Europe.
“Working together with an industry leader like the BMW Group allows us to benefit from economies of scale to reduce development costs as well as improve our time-to-market.”
The RD team at Toyota’s European technical centre in Belgium led the development of the Verso 1.6 D-4D, ensuring a seamless match between the engine and the Toyota transmission and electronics. At the same time they safeguarded the car’s established ride comfort and dynamic performance. This involved the development of a number of new components, including engine mounts, a dual-mass flywheel, a newgearbox housing and gearing and a stop/start system to further improve efficiency and reduce emissions. Production of the Verso 1.6 D-4D will begin in January 2014 at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey’s Adapazari plant, the centre for all Verso manufacturing.
Sourcing diesel engines is one aspect of a wider collaboration between Toyota and the BMW Group, under which the companies have announced plans to: -
§ Co-develop a fuel cell system
§ Conduct a feasibility study for the joint development of a sports car platform
§ Work together on creating lightweight vehicle body technologies
§ Undertake joint research into lithium-air batteries
Being born and brought up in a family that has been a part of the Automotive industry for over seven decades, Rachit has cars in his blood. Four wheelers are his childhood love, and he has grown up playing with bolts and spanners. To add more value to this passion, he studied automobile engineering and even karted at National level competitions.
Soon after that, he got into motoring journalism- where began the process of testing and evaluating cars. He has driven a wide range of cars beginning from Tata Nano to the Aston Martins, most of the cars that are currently sold in the Indian car market. Apart from this, he has also done many long road trips, and shall continue to do so. Rachit was one of the first journalists to take a Nano across the Golden Quadrilateral.
